Alternative Spare Tire

I guess I just don't understand why you want to pay $75 for a bag.

That kit is $335 for tire, wheel, tools & bag.

Through Toyota(Lewis Toyota) and TireRack, you can get the wheel, tire, and tool kit meant for your vehicle for $260.

It's obviously your money to spend, but...

$97.20 - Yokohama Y870B 145/90D18
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=Y870B&partnum=49MD6YOTEMP&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes
$72.09 - Spare Wheel - 42611-21280
Wheel | Part #4261121280 | Toyota Auto Parts
$90.26 - Tool Kit for the Prime - 09105-47020 (seriously overpriced, so maybe find a similar used set on eBay to save even more?)
Box Set, Jack

Then all you need is a bag to carry it in.

Oh, and you'll need to pay to have the tire mounted on the wheel. I think I was charged $10 by a local tire shop; or maybe it was $20. Actually, I think it cost $10 to mount the replacement spare on my old car, but the new car spare cost me $20 because it also needed a valve stem.

 

Great info, thanks.

The rim you linked is for a full sized spare, correct? Is there an easy way to find the toyota part number for a rim (or complete wheel) that is a narrower temporary spare with an 5/6/7 spoke aluminum rim that would fit a '24 prius prime SE ? Most important is to find a temporary spare that is identical (or nearly so) in diameter to my stock wheels.

Thanks for the help.

 

No, that was for the Toyota donut spare that fits on the Prius. The wheel is a 16x4 and you fit it with a 145/90/16 tire that has a diameter right between the 195/60/17 and 195/50/19 stock sizes. All of the spare wheels(Toyota, Modern Spare, etc.) are typically around 4" wide and mount a 135 or 145 width tire.*

No spare of any size fits under the cargo floor of the Prius Prime. Any spare you have in the car will have to be above the floor or in the back seats. The regular Prius can fit a donut spare under the cargo floor(easily in the case of the XLE and LTD, with a little modification in the case of the LE), but can't fit a full sized spare.


* Stock 17" diameter = 26.2"
Toyota: 16x4 with 145/90/16 = 26.3" (+0.4%)
Modern Spare: 18x4 with 135/70/18 = 25.4" (-3.1%)
EZ-Spare (3 choices on their website)
- 1. 17x5 with 145/80/17 = 26.1" (-0.4%)
- 2. 17x5 with 165/70/17 = 26.1" (-0.4%)
- 3. 18x4.5 with 125/80/18 = 25.9" (-1.1%)

Widths:
125 = 4.9" (EZ-Spare 3)
135 = 5.3" (Modern Spare)
145 = 5.7" (Toyota, EZ-Spare 1)
165 = 6.5" (EZ-Spare 2)

You could also put a 135/90/16 on the Toyota wheel to get you 5.3" wide and 25.6"(-2.3%) in diameter

 

Thanks. But the Toyota spare you linked to is a steel wheel, correct?

 

Thanks for the earlier reply. But, a few more questions: why is there a difference regarding fitting a donut spare under the floor in the case of regular prius LE vs under the floor of a regular prius XLE ? Are the vehicles different, or are the spares different? If it is the vehicles that are different, what about them is different that makes the different trims having different amounts of under floor space? Then, regarding trying to fit a donut spare under the floor of the prime, what intrudes in that area to prevent this? Is it the foam that toyota puts there, or is it the traction battery that prevents this?

 

I am not sure if you'll know but you seem fairly knowledgeable. Does most spares have the same centre bore? 5th gen should be 60.1mm but I've seen a few other car's spares that would work but in theory their centre bore is 67.1. I'm not sure if there's some standard with spare wheels or you'd need something like hub rings.

 

No, spare wheels have many different center bores. The Prius uses one of the smaller bores out there at 60.1mm. The 3rd party spares(ModernSpare, EZ-Spare, etc.) tend to use larger bores so they can fit as many cars as possible.

If you end up using a wheel with a bore bigger than 60.1mm, you really should use a hubcentric ring with it. If you order from one of the 3rd party companies, the kit should come with the correct ring. If you're sourcing a wheel yourself, you'll need to get the correct one yourself(they're pretty cheap).

Again, this is one of the reasons I like using the OEM-specced wheel; don't have to worry about any of this. Don't need to worry about hub rings, don't need to worry about different bevel angles on the lug nuts. Just put it on and go.



Total side note...

I was checking out some of the FAQ pages at ModernSpare. They were trumpeting how much better their spare was because it was designed to be as close as possible to the OEM tire diameter and that the tire they used had a DOT M rating so it could be driven at highway speeds and for longer distances. There was all this blather about how good their tire was and massive inferences about how bad traditional compact spares were.

So I looked up the tire they were using. It did, in fact, have a rating of 104M. Then I looked at all the 145/90/16 spare tires that you would use with the OEM Toyota wheel. Every one had a rating of 106M. They were actually rated for the same speeds and even higher weight loads than the one ModernSpare uses. And the OEM spare tire is way closer to the full-size tire diameter than the ModernSpare choice is. The only benefit to the ModernSpare tire is that it's a radial when the 16" tires are all bias-ply. But the 16" tires have the same speed rating and better load ratings, so...

 

Your info has been great, so thanks!

A few more questions: is there a toyota branded and/or OEM donut type spare wheel (so not aftermarket) that fits the priusP (not "fits" inside the cabin, but that "fits" as a spare wheel temporary replacement) that has an aluminum alloy rim? and that is hopefully lighter than the steel spare wheels?

I don't have a priusP (trying to get one now), but has anyone successfully done any mods on, say, a priusP SE trim where they have mounted a suitable donut spare under the cargo floor, but then cut/modified/lifted/etc the cargo floor such that the spare wheel was secure and its intrusion into the cargo area was not crazy big? I looked all over the interwebs but could find nothing (except regular prius spare wheel mods).

Also, does the priusP that is sold in Japan, does that have a spare? If yes, how is that spare mounted inside the car from the factory?

Thanks again.

 

In no particular order...

The Prime in Japan can't fit a spare inside either. Other than the dash being flipped, they're basically identical from a structure point of view.

I don't think Toyota makes a compact wheel made of aluminum/alloy. If they do, I wouldn't know where to start looking. I guess I'd start looking aftermarket and see what turns up.

Trying to alter the floor of a Prime for a spare is basically a no-go. In the HEV, the sheet metal floor is concave to provide space for the tire. In the Prime, the sheet metal floor is basically convex to allow for extra space underneath for the larger HV battery. A compact spare will generally be about 5.5" thick. The foam deck box in a Prime is only about 2" thick at it's thinnest point(which is where the tire would have to sit). So any tire laying on the floor would protrude at least 3.5" above the floor level, probably more. And there's no way to secure it well.

Here's a thread by an XSE owner with great photos of all the parts(there's no difference in the cargo area between an SE and XSE):
2023 Prius Prime | PriusChat

 

Interesting, so does that mean that the Japanese market priusP does not come with a spare? just a bottle of the tire repair stuff? Or, if it does come with a spare, where is it stashed on the Japanese version?

If it helps, we have a rav4P, and it does indeed come with a toyota 5 or 6-spoke aluminum rim space saver spare. I can post a photo of it if that would help.

Good info about the priusP subfloor, as that all makes sense. Related, has anyone on this forum posted images of what the gen5 priusP looks like under there with the foam all removed? Clearly, doing a mod where I would cut the plastic cargo deck is ok (in my mind at least), but doing a mod where the spare cannot be fully and safely secured would indeed be a no-go.

Thanks again for all of your help and the previous links.

 

Yeah, I don't care about the looks, I just want to see if I could get even lower in weight, like well under 29 lbs. I only assumed that this is possible because our rav4P also has a toyota aluminum spare wheel (space saver variety).

 

If you click on the link in my last post, it takes you to a thread with all the pictures you need.

No Japanese Priuses come with spares as standard equipment. The HEV Priuses can be ordered with a spare as an option, but the PHEV(Prime) cannot.

If the RAV4 Prime spare wheel is aluminum and you're going for minimum weight, you could just go with it and fit it with a 135/80-17 or 135/90-17. The RAV4 wheel(17x4T) will fit on the Prius, and those tire sizes will match the stock 17" circumference within 3%. If you want a little more tread width, you could also do 145/80-17.

 

Thanks for that link, exactly what I wanted. I have no idea how I missed it.

Yes, our rav4P spare is 17" and has a 165/80R17 tire installed stock. I haven't looked up the actual rim width or offset. Not even sure if its lighter than the steel rim you linked earlier. That said, here is a (partial) photo for those that might be interested:

 

I checked the RAV4 Prime owners manual before I posted. The spare wheel is listed as either a 17x4T or 18x4T. Since you have the 17" spare, that must mean you have an SE. And if you're minimizing weight, you want less wheel and more tire. I also checked wheel-size.com for the technical info on the RAV4 Prime wheel, which is a 5x114.3 bolt spacing and 60.1mm center bore no matter the trim. I don't think offset matters that much for a spare wheel. So all that should mean any wheel for a RAV4 Prime will physically work on any gen5 Prius.

The bad news: The OEM aluminum spare wheel for the RAV4 Prime(42611-33E70) has an MSRP of $403.84(vs. the MSRP of the steel Prius wheel of $104.28). Real world pricing of anything from $65(salvage) to $280(new) for the aluminum RAV4 wheel, and $45(salvage) to $72(new) for the steel Prius wheel.

New: 42611-33E70(17x4 aluminum) and 42611-21280(16x4 steel) using Lewis Toyota
Used: search car-part.com for a RAV4 aluminum wheel or a C-HR steel(it's the same wheel as the Prius)

 

Thanks again for all of that info. Yes, we have an rav4P SE.

And, agreed, $400 for a spare wheel is indeed steep. Sounds like steel is the way to go ... !